Becloned
I had a few free hours last night so I decided to start on a clone of probably the most popular casual game ever. Rather than use Java’s built in graphics, I found a free gem graphic and edited it for the necessary amount of colors. I didn’t have much time last night, plus this game is slightly more complex than the previous games posted, so it is not quite complete. Most of the mechanics are finished, but I need a few more hours to bring everything together. I used bit boards to represent the board state. This makes it very easy to perform operations such as finding gems which should be removed or to check if there are any legal moves left (yet to be implemented) simply by performing some bit masking. I used easing for swapping the gems and gravity for the collapsing animation.
So far I am pretty happy with the way it is turning out. Having some shiny animations like the original game would be cool though. I am going camping this long weekend (leaving this afternoon) so when I get back on Tuesday, hopefully I can find some time to add the finishing touches.
Play Gem Swapper.
Ill post the source when it’s done as I have to clean up a couple of things.